Shloka 35
Adhyāya 302: Guṇa-vicāra, Gati-bheda, and the Imperishable State
Yājñavalkya–Janaka
कृत्स्नमेतावतस्तात क्षरते व्यक्तसंज्ञितम् । अहन्यहनि भूतात्मा तत: क्षर इति स्मृत:,हे तात! यह सम्पूर्ण पांचभौतिक जगत् व्यक्त कहलाता है और प्रतिदिन इसका क्षरण होता है, इसलिये इसको क्षर कहते हैं
kṛtsnam etāvatās tāta kṣarate vyaktasaṃjñitam | ahany ahani bhūtātmā tataḥ kṣara iti smṛtaḥ ||
Vasiṣṭha said: “Dear child, all this entire manifest world—so called because it is evident and perceptible—undergoes wasting away. Day after day, the embodied principle within beings is subject to decay; therefore it is remembered as ‘kṣara’, the perishable.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
That the manifest, perceptible world (vyakta) is inherently perishable (kṣara) because it undergoes continual decay day after day; recognizing this supports detachment and discernment between the transient and the enduring.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing a younger interlocutor (‘tāta’) in a philosophical explanation: he defines why the visible, five-element-based realm is called ‘kṣara’—because it is constantly subject to diminution and dissolution.